Dell's new UltraSharp U2711 is huge, performs well and offers a plethora of ports. With a screen size of 27 inches and a native resolution of 2,560x1,440, there is plenty of screen real estate to be had here. However, there is a catch; the pricetag is a whopping $1,049. However, it is considerably cheaper than Dell's 3008WFP 30-inch monster which we reviewed in 2008. This may be an indication of a general decrease in price for monitors with stats like these.

One of the big draws behind the U2711 is the fact that its screen uses an In Plane Switching (IPS) panel. IPS monitors generally perform extremely well, and the U2711 continued this trend in our DisplayMate and movie viewing tests. If you want to start putting your new Blu-Ray drive through its paces and you can spare the expense, the Dell UltraSharp U2711 should make you pretty happy. Our only major gripe here is that the screen isn't LED-backlit.

Here are some highlights from our review:

"As a result, the U2711 breezed through our DisplayMate tests, offering superb performance on both ends of the gray scale, and excellent color reproduction that didn’t noticeably shift when viewing at different angles."

"Gamers should be happy with this screen as well, but content creators are the real target audience for this screen, with Dell’s specs claiming 96 percent of AdobeRGB coverage, and a Custom Color mode in the onscreen display that allows for tweaking saturation, hue, gain, and offset."

"The U2711 has just about every connectivity option around back that you could ask for, including VGA, two DVI, Composite, Component, HDMI, and DisplayPort. Though we would have liked to see more than one HDMI port, we can hardly complain with that many options. Also on board are four USB ports (two on the side, two in the back), as well as audio jacks and an 8-format flash card reader. Our only minor gripe is that the downward-facing ports are a pain to plug things in to."